Trump says MAGA can exist without him

President Trump on Sunday said his “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA movement can exist in American politics without his involvement .

Trump sat down for an interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Ross Douthat, who asked the president about the Republican Party’s future following its devastating losses in last week’s midterm elections.

“Do you think you can have MAGA without you as the leader?” Douthat said.

Trump replied that he thinks so, “because MAGA is basically common sense,” echoing a line Republicans stated on the campaign trail that voters had to choose between “common sense versus crazy,” as Trump and other Republicans characterized Democrats.

The CBS host noted that Trump will likely endorse someone to carry on his legacy beginning in 2028, to which Trump first said “probably” but then added “not necessarily. We have a tremendous bench.”

Douthat then asked who would be on the president’s list of potential successors other than Vice President Vance.

“Well, I think Marco’s great, but there are many others and I’d rather not mention their names,” he said, referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “There’s some senators that are excellent. I know them all. I like them a lot.”

“So, I may or may not get involved,” he continued. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m better off not getting involved.”

The passage of the midterms signifies the approaching halfway point of Trump’s second term, with questions swirling about his political future and the future of the MAGA movement.

But the historic losses last Tuesday have blurred the picture of the party’s presidential field about 15 months before the GOP primaries begin. Vance is the likely heir to Trump’s legacy, but it could become difficult to sell himself as a change candidate while still being part of an increasingly unpopular administration .

The GOP’s losses and subsequent hit on the administration have created a large opening for other potential Republican primary candidates, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas).

Rubio, who ran against Trump for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, fares better in hypothetical 2028 presidential match-ups against Democratic candidates, according to a survey taken by Emerson College and The Hill back in August.

The secretary largely kept his distance from Trump’s midterm campaign and has not commented about the election results.

Reporting from The Independent and other outlets suggested Rubio was considering leaving the Trump administration to allegedly prepare for a 2028 presidential run. However, the State Department called this reporting a “ baseless hoax .”

The outlet report cited an unnamed “Washington insider” who claimed that Rubio should distance himself from the Iran war and that it would make sense for him to “step down and leave the administration.”